Sunday, January 22, 2017

The Robber (Austria, 2010) aka Der Räuber

You know how local TV news used to show these long, live car chases where the cops chase someone all over town usually until the car crashes and someone gets killed or seriously injured? I always found myself sympathizing with the idiot trying to get away.

But I watched an Austrian crime movie which didn't have that effect at all. I kept wishing someone would shoot that guy.

An Austrian criminal takes up marathon running in prison. Prisons are very nice there and they give him a treadmill for his cell. But when he's paroled, being able to run long distances without ever slowing down is like a super power. He's able to run from bank to bank robbing them and even when he's arrested, he's able to leap out of his chair, jump out a window and get away.

Pretty good movie. I hated that guy though. Seems like I would have had some grudging admiration for him.

Reminded me a bit of the Dustin Hoffman movie Straight Time. I haven't seen it in thirty years but it was sort of the same thing, a scumbag just out of the slam wrecks his new girlfriend's life. All he has to do is not rob people. Is it really that hard?